Latest Gaea Theme and VPS

Hi – we have used Gaea theme for years on an Apache server and our host migrated the site to their WP VPS in mid June. For the last month the number of problems we’ve had with the site have been extensive and, as you can guess, the tech folks blame the theme.
At issue:http://www.riedelcody.org
(1)The footer at the bottom is showing a “proudly powered by..” text line that I can’t see in the footer.php and I have all of the theme settings to show a 4 section footer.
(2)If I update to the latest theme the font’s default to something like Times and there are header text over banners.
(3) When the site migrated to the VPS most – but not all – of the sidebar content was lost. Tech support is saying it’s because the theme isn’t compatible with running on VPS – which I think sounds absurd but I’m passing it along.
(4) Back on the Apache server whenever I try to install the latest theme I get a white screen on the back end.

1. It seems like your new hosting might be using some plugin for cache or else which is changing theme’s default footer.
2. I checked and found the current theme is very old version which should be updated to latest version before I can check the fonts and text over banner issues.
3. Can you let me know if the sidebars content came back once you revert back to old version? That’s not true our theme is fully compatible with any kind of hosting and our own demo websites are running on the best hosting from WPEngine with no such issues.
4. That needs to be investigated as some server config when not set upto the required ones then the server throws 500 Internal Server Error which you can’t see on page.

Please share your website’s wp-admin credentials and FTP access info here in a private reply for me to check the things. Also keep a full backup of your website for the case if restoration is required.

Can you let me know what should I check now as your hosting provider have already moved you back on Apache server? I am not sure about this hosting environment and what special things a theme should have to be compatible with this. Gaea theme is built upon the basics of WordPress and if your hosting provider have some special instructions or code that needs to be integrated in the theme then I would be happy to look into that if they can provide more details. Thanks

I totally understand your frustration with this problem and we would have already fixed this if it was a global problem for all of Gaea theme users but this is the first time this error has been reported. Still I am trying to find a solution. I will be check it now.

FYI Your credentials shared above are in a private reply which you and me can see only.

Hi, I just investigated your website and found that one of the plugin “SMK Sidebar Generator” was conflicting with the widgets which I just deactivated as this was a plugin we used to recommend way back few years ago for our themes but now for a long time we recommend using Pojo Sidebars for sidebar generator.

Also I found that the ajax response time on your website is something between 5-15 seconds on different occasions so until the request is complete the widgets doesn’t get saved in to the sidebars. You may discuss this with your hosting provider and for the meantime you can wait 5-10 after the loading sign of widget completes after adding a new widget.

For testing I have added one of your inactive widget to “Fundraising” sidebar and it’s displaying on your donate now page.